This space is to share fun preschool ideas and activities. I am also passionate about children exploring their outdoor surroundings. Thanks for stopping by to see the latest Adventure with the Kerr's!
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Wednesday, December 22

Winter Solstice Skiing

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  When we get this kind of snow at our house....

 

 It beckons us to go up into the mountains....





And have a day of skiing. 
At Alta resort they do "ski for free after 3" and you can see quite a few parents taking their child(ren) out on the mountain to enjoy this deal. Maybe towards the end of this season we will see if River is ready for that adventure. For the time being he just stays on the rope tow!



Going somewhat fast!






Pizza, pizza!





 So grown up! 




 I think he was trying to stop.





It may be a little hard to see the sun, in this photo, but it was beautiful.  I loved being in the mountains enjoying winter solstice outside with my family. 





It was great to be able to enjoy the day with the shortest amount of light of the year, outdoors playing.


2 comments

Wednesday, December 15

Winner- Winner

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V. Peterson-

You have been drawn out of the hat! You are the lucky-ducky winner of the 100th post celebration!

Let me know what address you would like me to send your package to?

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Monday, December 13

100th post Giveaway

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I have been really excited about sharing one of my most favorite books, "Simplicity Parenting" as my 100th post Celebration. I can't believe that I have already hit the mark of 100 posts and it has almost been a full year since I have embraced blogging! This past year has been full of a lot of growing and learning about myself and my children. "Simplicity Parenting" has been such a great turning point for me to start creating a rhythm in our home and to start simplifying the environment around us.

I would love to be able to give this book to all my friends, but since I lack the funds to do so, there will only be one lucky person who will receive this package in the mail.



**Just leave a comment of something you enjoy doing with children (indoors or outdoors) and your email if our aren't a google follower.**

I will draw the name of winner this Wednesday at 11:11 pm.

(Feel free to leave 2 comments if you would like to increase your odds)

15 comments

Sunday, December 12

Foam ball SNOWMAN

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There are have been so many great snowman crafts in the blog world I was having a really hard time deciding on which one to do (one that I saw or one I thought of). But I think I made the right decision. This was probably the best activity we have done lately to encourage imaginative play!



The materials:
*3 different sizes of foam craft balls (the dollar tree is where we purchased them)
*toothpicks to hold the balls together (used (1) full size and (1/2) size for the small head)
* 3/4 size toothpicks for the arms (make sure the pointed end goes inside the snowman)
*orange foam triangle with a 1/3 size toothpick for the nose
*black construction paper hat with 1/2 size toothpick taped to the back
*blue, black and red pipe cleaners cut really small for eyes and buttons
*blue felt for scarf





You can see that one snowman had his scarf around his belly. Each child was able to make the snowman easily by pushing the toothpicks and pipe cleaners in by themselves. 




I love this pic a lot for some reason. I love the hand and shoes. I love the anticipation for the photo shoot to be over for this snowman so these 2 girls can continue playing. (The adventurers are used to me taking pictures of their projects so they wait as patiently as they can, um about 5 seconds, and the good news is that is usually all I need.)




A blizzard is coming, a blizzard is coming!!! The children were running around in the snow making this proclamation.





Luckily this snowman (with feet) was able to take cover for the awful blizzard that was approaching!

The adventurers had a really fun time with this activity! I was even lucky enough to get a video clip of them running around playing in the snow with their snowmen.


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Thursday, December 9

Sparkly Silver Snowflake

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This craft looks great, doesn't take much prep time, children enjoy doing it and Parents love it! Even had a few parents say they are excited to put it on their tree :) The inspiration to do this project with the adventurers can be found here.



What you need:
* 6 silver pipe cleaners cut in half
*clear tri-beads
*clear snowflake beads
*fish line




I put the beads into the tray and 
made the snowflakes before class started. 

To make the snowflake cut the 6 pipe cleaners in half. Wrap 1 pipe cleaner around the 11 pieces directly in the middle. Once it is tight pull away each pipe cleaner piece to go in the direction that looks best. (Sounds a little weird but makes sense once you make one.)




This activity was great to practice fine motor skills. We also discovered that the beads on the snowflake makes a cool sound when dropped.

When everyone was done playing I attached fish line to 
make it a hanging ornament. 

************************************************

The Tiny Snowflake by Arther Ginolfi

A cute book about a snowflake trying to find out what makes her special. She finds out that she is a sparkly snowflake that makes the snow glisten.

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Sunday, December 5

Random acts of Christmas kindness

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I enjoy following Katherine Marie Photography's blog. She shared a really inspiring post of counting down the days to Christmas by doing random acts of kindness advent style. To see the full post read it here.



Committing to do a little service each day leading up to Christmas would be soo much fun but also a little overwhelming. (I would feel really bad missing one day, than missing 2 days, etc.)

So instead of RACK (Random Acts of Christmas Kindness) as a count down to Christmas, I want to have about 4-6 presents with the service idea wrapped up inside. This way it will be completely random as to which service we will do that day as a family. (except shoveling snow)

These are some of Random Acts of Christmas Kindness that I am excited about:

*Tape candy canes and happy holiday notes to ATMS, vending machines, on cars, etc.
*Take a card and treat to hard working post office employees.
*Buy a hot cocoa for Salvation Army bell ringers. 
*Ask a checkout clerk at grocery store what their favorite gum or candy bar is and purchase it for them.
*Hurry and shovel a neighbor's driveway of snow before they do it.
*Make a street pretty for Christmas (pick up roadside trash-Santa Style!) 

The next few weeks will be a little busy for us, but I feel that these little service ideas won't take too much time and we will all have fun doing it. Plus this way we can focus our attention on the real reason for the season.


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Friday, November 26

Simplify the Holiday Shopping

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I love this time of year when the white snow blankets the trees and houses and there is a peaceful stillness outside.  It's great to cuddle up indoors under warm quilts, drink hot cocoa and listen to your favorite Holiday album. But this peaceful stillness and warm cozy moments turns into a frenzy once the advertisements begin to fill your mailbox and email inbox with the best Black Friday deals.  One step into the store and you see the giant sign stating of how many shopping days are left until Christmas.  All of this advertising makes you feel that you MUST buy, buy, buy and soon because time is running out!  Every toy catalog features the newest, greatest toys of this past year and the special awards earned. You begin thinking that you MUST buy these items or else your child will be disappointed and wish they had different parents. Parents who purchased every single toy featured in the best toys of 2010 catalog.

I will admit that I love good deals and it is fun to shop for new things your children will enjoy but the real question is, "Does my child need more stuff?"

In Simplicity Parenting, pg. 22, "Too much stuff leads to too little time and too little depth in the way kids see and explore their world."

So what stuff do we want to give to our children during this Holiday Season? What is going to help them explore their world? What is going to enhance their imagination? This is a personal question that deems discussion with your partner/family. Some families are committed to only homemade gifts, some ban all toys that need batteries, or some say no to anything plastic. 

A good friend told me that they just focus on 4 gifts for their children: something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. This framework of 4 gifts I think really helps to eliminate potential stuff that isn't needed. 


Last week my husband and I were at Lowe's (our local hardware store) and I found a child-sized hammer and tool set. I was so excited! "This is the perfect gift for River, he can have his own tools and be a little wood worker just like his Papa," I thought. I quickly hid the tool set as I saw my husband, Eli, come around the corner with the kids. I took Eli aside and showed him the gift I was going to buy strategically so River wouldn't see. To my shock Eli said, "Why don't we just a wait until we know exactly what we are planning on buying." "But Eli CHRISTMAS is COMING! And what if this is not here next week!!" Then it hit me. I was totally engrossed in the "how many shopping days left until Christmas" coma. It took me a few minutes to wake up and realize that Eli and I haven't discussed together what 4 gifts we should purchase for River. Even if the tool set is one of the gifts we decide on I didn't HAVE TO BUY it right then.

So my advice to escape the shopping frenzy is to sit down and make a list together of the items you both think would be best for your children. Once you both have discussed what gifts you will be giving than hopefully you will be buffered from any future I-must-buy-this-now-because- it's-a-good-deal purchases. This way you can avoid buying gifts that are really... just more stuff.







3 comments

Wednesday, November 24

Pine cone turkey

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I wanted to make these pine cone turkeys so we did. However anytime a glue gun is involved and I am the only adult with 7 children I will rethink the art project.



 Can you see the glue gun spider webs?






The materials we used:

*pine cone
*feathers
*I cut out the felt head, beak, and waddle 
(seems like we usually call it the gobbler)
*google eyes
*pipe cleaner feet





We just stuck in the feathers without glue.






This is the first way you can make the face
(as a side profile with an eye on each side of the head).





And this is the second way to make the face
(as a full face view with both eyes in the front).





Here is little Rue making a face while holding her turkey.





I'm not quite sure if he's being mischievous, adventurous, or bashful...


Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

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Tuesday, November 23

Indian corn

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I had this idea brewing around in my head so I was excited to see if it was a keeper...and I think it will be!



Since frozen corn is on sale right now for Thanksgiving we were able to get a large bag for $1. We put the corn on trays in the dehydrator for about 4 hours. The cool leaf tops are actually from a plant in the front yard (sorry I don't know its name) which worked out great.




The materials we used:
*Dehydrated corn
*Thin cardboard from a cereal box cut into the shape of an ear of corn.
*Dried leaves
*Clear tacky glue (my most favorite glue)
*Scotch tape




Yes, even an 18-month old can do it!






River spread on the glue and then spread on the corn. 





Ta-da! 
I just used scotch tape to adhere the leaves at the top!



1 comments

Monday, November 22

Free photo cards from shutterfly

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Free, yes my friends I said free photocards for bloggers from Shutterfly. I think a lot of us probably think of shutterfly picturebooks but they also make fabulous greeting cards and I'm most excited about the photo christmas cards. This whole special comes at a great time because this weekend my husband and I were trying to decide if we want to send a photo christmas card or a card with a 4x6 print. We probably spent over an hour looking at photocards on-line from costco, walgreens, and vista print wondering if we really want to use those templates for our annual Christmas card (mind you we have never sent out a photo christmas card)....so I'm excited to be able to get some nice looking ones for FREE!

There are a few different styles that Shutterfly offers that I dig: 

The 5x5 square: here  

I also like the 5x7 with 3 of more photos option: here     
here (you can fit a lot of photos in this design)


This is the first year that we have begun to think about Christmas cards before Thanksgiving!


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